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Railroad History/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim is sitting in his living room reading a newspaper when a paper airplane hits him in the face. It is a letter. Tim unfolds it and reads from the typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, can you tell me about the history of railways? From, Sachin. A train whistle sound gets closer to Tim. TIM: Oh no. A big dust cloud appears. When it clears, Moby appears as the engineer of the steam engine locomotive that crashed into the living room. TIM: Mom is gonna freak! MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, I guess we might as well answer this. People have been building railroads for centuries. The first rails were laid down for horse-drawn carts. These early wagonways only ran for short stretches, like from a mine to a nearby river. Horses could pull more weight, and do it faster, over smooth rails than bumpy roads. An image shows a wagon way. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Things changed when Scottish engineer James Watt developed his steam engine. Steam engines convert heat into motion. An animation shows James Watt with his steam engine. A label shows the steam engine was invented in 1775. TIM: The earliest models were too heavy and weak to power a train but inventors kept tinkering with the design. By the 1820s, they'd advanced to the point where the first railroads began operating in Great Britain, followed by the United States. An animation shows early steam railroad engines. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You're right, this period was known as the Industrial Revolution. Newly invented machines were transforming the way people lived and worked. An image shows a rural community, then a city block. TIM: City populations exploded as societies moved from farming into manufacturing. The image shows more and more people appearing on the city block. TIM: Railroads were a huge part of that. In fact, wherever tracks were laid, towns and industry were almost certain to follow. An animated map of the U.S. shows cities across the country being built near railroad tracks. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, like the early wagonways, the first railroads were short lengths of track. They were used mainly for freight service: transporting bulk goods. Top and bottom animations show two examples of early railroads carrying goods like logs, fruit, and hay. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Oh, you know, like hauling coal from a mine, or moving raw cotton to a cloth factory. Freight lines quickly became profitable. Unlike canals and rivers, which froze up during winter, trains could be used year-round. And they crashed much less often than boats sank. Top and bottom images shows a boat loaded with freight stuck in ice and a sinking boat with its crew swimming to shore while its freight floats on the water. TIM: Supplied by railroads, city populations could grow bigger than ever before and factories could work around the clock. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Yup, railroads pushed the American frontier farther and farther west, with new towns springing up along the major routes. An animated map of the U.S. shows a network of railroads stretching from the east coast to the west. Towns appear near the railroads in some areas. TIM: Just a few decades after the first lines were built, there were enough tracks in America to wrap around the planet. And they weren't just hauling cargo; trains were becoming the most popular mode of long-distance travel. Meanwhile, railroad owners like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould were becoming household names. An image shows Vanderbilt and Gould. TIM: Some of these men became philanthropists, donating chunks of their fortunes to universities and other public projects. Others were seen more as robber barons: men who used their political influence to amass wealth and power. MOBY: Beep? TIM: As new innovations made steel cheaper and stronger, the pace of construction picked up. An image shows two steel workers. TIM: Soon, rail lines were being built across entire continents. In Europe, the Orient Express stretched from Paris, France, to Istanbul, Turkey. A map of Europe shows the Orient Express route between these two cities. TIM: In Russia, the Trans-Siberian Railway spanned almost six thousand miles, from Saint Petersburg all the way to the Pacific. A map of Russia shows the Trans-Siberian Railway routes between Saint Petersburg and the Pacific coast. TIM: And in America, the Transcontinental Railroad connected the existing rail network in the East to the Pacific Ocean. A U.S. map shows the Transcontinental Railroad networks linking to a route that goes to the Pacific coast. TIM: Running 1,700 miles from Nebraska to California, it was actually built by two different companies. The Union Pacific started in Omaha, and built tracks going west, while the Central Pacific began in Sacramento and built tracks going east. An animation of a U.S. map shows the tracks built from Omaha and Sacramento. Different colors distinguish the two companies that built them. TIM: Tens of thousands of laborers laid track and blasted through obstacles. An image show track-laying laborers in front of a large hole they blasted in a mountain. TIM: In the East, many of these workmen were immigrants from Ireland, while in the West, most came from China. An image shows an immigrant from Ireland standing next to someone from China. TIM: The project was completed in 1869, when the two lines met in Utah. An image shows laborers and businessmen surrounding the tracks where the two lines meet. TIM: All of a sudden, it took just six days to get from New York to California. Previously, it had taken six months. An image shows two posters announcing the Union and Central Pacific Railroad Line. One poster promotes the direct route to San Francisco. TIM: The railroad brought rapid development to the Western states, and spelled the end of the "wild frontier." MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, the railroads dominated America until the 1920s, when people began traveling by automobile instead. An animation shows early automobiles traveling down a city block. TIM: As for freight, these days most of it is carried by trucks over the interstate highway system. But in other parts of the world, lots of people still travel by high-speed train. These can move faster than one hundred fifty miles per hour. An image shows a high-speed bullet train. MOBY: Beep? TIM: Well, right now there's only one high-speed train in the United States, but– MOBY: Beep! Moby walks off screen and an engine noise is heard. TIM: Oh no. Tim grits his teeth and puts his hands out in anticipation. A big dust cloud appears. The cloud lifts and Moby appears as the engineer of a high speed train that just crashed into Tim's living room. Tim freaks out again. TIM: How are you doing this?! There are no tracks! Category:BrainPOP Transcripts